Reunion
by fugacior
Summary: She came to see him a year after she graduated. This is their chance to get something out of their first meeting after separation. AU, collegefreshman!Mikasa & highschoolteacher!Rivaille.


"_Mr. Rivaille?_"

"_What is it__?_"

"_If you don't mind, I want to see you later at school._"

"_Sure._"

* * *

**Reunion**

******Shingeki No Kyojin © Isayama Hajime**

******Warning: AU; OOC; typo(s); LeviMika, implied EreMika, EreAnnie, and LeviPetra (character death)**

* * *

It had been almost a year since the graduation.

Prior to their first meeting after it, Levi hadn't expected that she would come. He got a lot of visits from his students recently, but not her. She had never told him once about how was she, not even a single e-mail, phone call, text. It was almost as they were separated in their own worlds without anything to connect them inbetween.

Her sudden phone call was quite startling. A news that he wouldn't want to miss for the world—his best student told him that she wanted to see him. He hid his smile and tried to keep his tone stoic, but he couldn't get rid of the spark of joy that he felt. He wondered how she looked like, after living a year far from her hometown. Armin, who stayed in the same flat as hers, once said to him in a recent visit a couple of weeks ago about how Mikasa went elegant, but one thing that never changed from her was the red scarf that she always wore.

The red scarf.

It was given to her from Eren. He remembered they were an item, right after Mikasa broke Jean up after the football match two years ago. The ingenuous talented young girl and the jock with tough attitude and a heart of gold. They were inseparable. Unfortunately, they were destined not to be together after high school. Eren got a football scholarship, while Mikasa nailed her audition to a prominently well-known dramatic arts academy at the capital city despite being offered for an early admission at one of the top class universities. She sought her chances in something that was worth her true inner desire and talent, and Levi was one of the witnesses of it, also the first person who convinced her to pursue her dream.

"You don't need to listen to people telling you about what you should do to your life," he said. "If it makes you happier to go there, then go and aim for it."

He remembered the graduation day. He was granted an award of honor—'Teacher of the Year'. He could still sense the air of euphoria, students cheering here and there, handshakes and hugs all over. But her appreciation was worth a lot more than that. He could still depict how she was at that time—ecstatic. It was also the day she got her acceptance letter to the dramatic arts academy, and he was glad that he was the first person who knew about it. She whispered a gentle 'thank you' on his ear, as she planted a kiss on his cheek.

To this day, he would never forget everything happened at that time.

* * *

The high school auditorium was still the same as ever from the last time she was there.

Mikasa slowly walked closely to the piano, trailing her hands on the smooth, shiny black object. She felt a pang in her heart all of the sudden, as the image of her favorite teacher playing the grand instrument appeared on her head. It hadn't been once, or twice, but many times she saw him singing to himself accompanied by the piano. She recalled his beautiful voice, and there was a time when she hoped she wanted to sing with him, but that had never happened.

She took a one-way flight so she could meet up with Levi. She didn't immediately look for him, she needed a time to enjoy the old view of the building whilst observing the surroundings. She noticed there were minor adjustments, they added more lockers on the side of the hall and some walls were painted in a different color. She could see Principal Pixis's office from afar—he added more ornaments and the walls that was once yellow mellow turned into melancholy blue.

But what she missed the most from the school was the auditorium. It was her sanctuary, the place where she could express herself. She performed numerous solos throughout her sophomore to junior days, she didn't get to sing a lot when she was a freshman and she focused on her study in senior year. She wasn't crazy for people's recognition of her capability to hit the notes perfectly and pulling off the pitches right, although she didn't refuse any forms of appreciation either. She did it all because she enjoyed it.

The black haired girl sat on the piano stool, pressing some of the keys, forming some kind of an unusual melody. A sigh escaped from her lips, as she began singing the first lines of the song that she loved, the song which reminded her of him; her all time favorite.

_On my own, pretending he's beside me  
All alone, I walked with him 'till morning_

A moment after, she sobbed. Followed by a dropping tear, and it kept streaming across her cheeks. She bit her lower lip to hold herself from being emotional, but she was lost. Her eyes were almost bloodshot. She couldn't stop the waterfall of hurt from her black orbs and her chest started to hurt, as if someone suffocated her. She used her scarf to get rid off some of the tears, but the scent of it just made her cry even more. She ended up covering her face with it.

"Is that you?"

From the other side of the stage, a not-so-tall figure approached her. His shirt's sleeves were pulled back and his tie was loosened up; his usual post-work attire after a long day of teaching. Mikasa could hear the footsteps getting closer to her as she wiped her tears away and made sure that she looked fine as ever. She turned to him, trying to make herself looked as normal as possible.

"Mr. Rivaille," she greeted, with a forced stoic tone, "glad to see you since the last time we met."

The man noticed how puffy Mikasa's cheeks were, the faint smile, and the hurtful feeling she tried to hide from him just then. He decided not to intrigue her about the matter that made her so—he pretended that everything was fine for her, replying, "Me too."

They walked down the stage and sat on the front seat of the auditorium, and none of them started talking for a few minutes. Mikasa didn't know where to start—so far it flowed like a river with rocks here and there; the usual dance routines, vocal lessons, and drama performances were her daily activity meal as a dramatic arts student. Living her long time dream was magnificent, but somehow she couldn't describe him that she finally gathered something to fill her empty space in her heart after a long time she went away. Levi didn't have anything interesting to tell her so far, although he had to admit there were some significant increase in the students record in French this year.

"I guess you have a lot to tell me after spending a year living the dream?" Levi asked, almost in a snarky tone, to which Mikasa explained with a regretful face, "I'm sorry, Mr. Rivaille. It's just that, you know, I've been thinking a lot. The price of achieving it was worth the stress, and even though I looked for the time to tell you, I didn't want to bug you from your work either. Of course, I still remember you and I owe you a lot, but..."

She didn't continue her sentence, lost of words. Levi just chuckled it off. "It's okay, I get it. Send my regards to Ian." Hearing him mentioned the name of the academy's very strict acting teacher, Mikasa arched her eyebrows. "You know him?"

"Of course. We auditioned for the same lead role in a famous play. It doesn't matter who got it, though."

Mikasa didn't ask furthermore. She overheard the stories of Mr. Dietrich from her friends at the academy—he was quite the man who was born to play lead roles, either protagonists or antagonists—Romeo, Hamlet, _West Side Story_'s Riff, _A Chorus Line_'s Zach; you name it. But he once flunked his chances to get _Rent_'s Mark Cohen to a compeer who had slightly better skills on expressing despite his short stature. He ended up getting Roger Davis, even though he was a little dissatisfied with the decision. She guessed that it might be Levi, but she didn't want to let curiosity killed her.

"Does it have to be me to tell all the story? How about yourself?" Mikasa asked him back.

Levi snorted. What should he tell her? 'Your friends happened to see me but I'm expecting you to come here after so long and now here you are', 'French has a significant record increase from years back, even the numbers of illiterate cheerleaders are low by 15% from last year', or 'Tell me more about your days, since I'm pretty much running out of meaning of my life anymore'?

"Why do you have to ask?"

He chose not to tell anything, yet.

"Aren't you the one who wanted to hear how I've been lately?" Mikasa retorted.

"Aren't you the one who wanted to see me?" Levi answered back in a calm voice.

Mikasa pouted, as she folded her arms. "Okay, fine. Then let me tell you: I had decent times there, to my expectance. I'm happy about it—living with my best friend, Armin; striving myself on a journey with the best of the best; and even though this is all just a start, I can feel that I'm getting this close to get what I want. And do you know that I planned to audition for the role Wendla in an indie remake of _Spring Awakening_? If this is all that you need to know, then I—"

"How is Eren?"

The girl on the brown trench coat shut her mouth and a frown appeared on her face. She couldn't answer the question, and from Levi's question he might had already known about something between them, but she refused to believe. Maybe Eren came and told him about it, or someone else who happened to know what was going on. She didn't want to tell him about that at the moment. She was supposed to be _fine_ in front of him, for God's sake!

"Are you both still dating?" Levi kept throwing her questions. "Or does the ship stop sailing?"

_Great. Why does he have to know too?_

She stared at him in disbelief. "Did somebody tell you about it?"

"Leonhart happened to drop herself off here after having her routine. She came to deliver the good news about her new relationship with Jaeger."

Mikasa was shocked when she heard the blond's name. So that was the reason all along, why he decided to break up with her! It all made sense—the institution which Eren received his scholarship also gave Annie the same scholarship for cheerleading. Moreover about his attitude whenever Annie was around him, it was as if he wanted to ditch Mikasa just to get her attention. That's why he couldn't bear to have her as his girlfriend, only he lied about the reasons. It wasn't about long distance relationship, it was about him _cheating on her_ with Annie.

No wonder their last kisses felt different.

"I-I'm sorry, but, I never knew that Eren already... w-went out with her," Mikasa uttered jittery. "He did end the relationship, but I-I, uh... he didn't tell me that it was because of her. I mean, I should've seen it all along, the way he looked at her—it's as if he was undressing her with his eyes! I just..."

She was very upset after hearing the truth. She didn't get why Eren dared to do this to her, and how much she had lacked to please Eren as her boyfriend. Levi had an urge to take her into his arms just to comfort her, but he didn't want to give her a slight contact just yet. The girl continued, "This whole break up thing is almost killing me, if I have to say. Maybe it sounds exaggerating, but when you love someone so deeply... the fact that it hurts you as much as how it makes you happy but it seems so impossible, and then finally you have your chance. But someday, time is running out, and all of the sudden everything goes back to where it starts. You're at the zero point, you fall down, crashing so hard to the ground. Starting over after breaking is one of the hardest things to do, but it's life. You have to keep... moving on."

Oh, the man knew that feeling so well.

He was destined to marry a young lady. Her body looked frail, her face was like sunshine—content, with bright orange-blond short locks around her, and her smile was never felt out of the place. She was a kindergarten teacher, a very kind-hearted woman who loved flowers, kids, and vintage articles. She enjoyed reading classic literatures and watching romance-drama shows. At first, he wasn't so interested about her, despite her good-looking appearance; more likely to be described as a girl next door, a goody two shoes. But she made him change his mind, and slowly he was head over heels in love with her.

They planned a very beautiful celebration at her hometown. A small party, consisting family and close friends; at least everyone who roots for them all along. A day before the wedding, she went to look for a wedding dress. He remembered she showed him one that she liked so much—a long white dress with a flowing veil with flowers, a drapery accent below, and satin wedding gloves. A traditional type, but he didn't care. As long as she wanted to, and he was sure that she looked beautiful in it.

Until a shocking news appeared on the television.

Not far from the wedding boutique, someone attempted to do a suicide bomb in a grand Italian restaurant. The explosion killed several people, a lot were injured. Unfortunately, his soon-to-be wife was one of the people who didn't survive from the bomb explosion. Her body was found in front of the remains of the restaurant—just as she was about to leave with the car, it occurred.

At the end of the day, Levi locked himself in his room for the rest of the week and refused to see anyone. He didn't cry, nor went angry. He was sitting in his bed, thinking about how his life would be if she doesn't die. He didn't blame God for taking his fiancée away from him, nor did he blame himself because he couldn't do anything to save her from the disaster. He prayed in his heart that she would be at the safest place out there, and he promised that he would keep himself only for her, no matter what.

_I'm sorry I have broken my promise to you. I traded my love for you for happiness. Is it sinful for me to cheat on you? Do I deserve this, since I lost you, someone I cared for deepfully?_

"I'm sorry about that."

That was all he could say for now. He didn't want to ruin what they have if he professed how he actually felt for her. He was afraid that she didn't want to see him again after he said it, and that she would leave him without saying anything. She might not return to see high school anymore, and he could imagine what might happened—Mikasa's name would be widely known throughout the stages, as she delivers breathtaking portrayals of well-known female leads of plays. She would be a star, thanks to him. A decision which backfired at him because there is no way he and Mikasa would be together.

"Do you know something, Mr. Rivaille?"

"What is it now?"

"There was a time when I had feelings for you, actually," she said, her face went bright red. She shifted her scarf to adjust it so it could hide some of the blush on her face, adding, "But anyway, it was over. It was just a stupid school girl crush. I've been longing to tell you this, but I keep forgetting, just to have you know. And there's this favorite song, which I think you know, entitled 'On My Own' from the seminal brodway classic _Les Mis_. It's beautiful and it reminds me very much... about you."

"... Oh."

There was one time when he accidentally overheard her singing the song. It felt magical and he thought that it was one of the best things that he had ever heard in his entire life. He saw the flowing tears when she sang it, it means she brought the song with someone on her mind that made her connected with the song. Moreover his deceased lover mentioned about the song several times; it was actually her favorite song. Thinking about it brought him a slight pain in his chest.

He was one step closer getting to know the answer.

"Have you ever heard these stories about forbidden love?"

"Excuse me?" Mikasa was puzzled a little. "You mean the ones involving family conflict like _Romeo and Juliet_, or creature conflict like _Twilight_ or _Teen Wolf_—"

"It's not that kind of sappy, young adult romantic shit," he cut her abruptly, "and it's not the kind of classic destined-long-lost-love worn out legend either. You know, the ones not far from daily life—incest; LGBT; and ones that shouldn't happen because they're against the rules and norms, such as a student-teacher romantic relationship. How do you think about that?"

Back in the days when she was crazy about Levi, she ever thought about how a student and a teacher undergo a romantic relationship. She knew the school rules forbid it, but she didn't want to care. In her utmost private thoughts, she even hoped to _marry _Levi one day, but it would be awkward and impossible. Their age difference was almost as far as 15 years, and even if they were together, she had to graduate high school, since she would be no longer his student. Well, now she wasn't his student for a year—and after Levi brought it up, she pondered again about how this could be a good idea or not.

"Well, forbidden loves are thrilling, and it's the type of the relationship that I enjoy the most. Well, not in the lovers's point of view, but on my view as an obverser; as someone who never experienced it." she spoke. "I happen to know a senior of mine at the academy of mine who had an affair with the dance teacher. I was one of the few people to find out—sadly, he was kicked out when the board sniffed out the trails of their secret meetings at a low-cost three star hotel. It gave me a wake-up call, that I should've never thought of having those kind of relationships. It's dangerous, as well as not acceptable through other people's eyes."

"It's their eyes, not yours."

She was bewildered at Levi's statement. "What do you mean, Sir?"

"Ackerman, do you forget about what I said to you?" he scowled. "You don't need to listen to people fucking telling you about what you should do with your goddamned life. Your life is yours, theirs are theirs. No matter if you had those little shits you called as your enemies, obstacles, or whatever along the way; as long as you're happy with it, then go for it!"

"Of course I still remember to this day, Mr. Rivaille!" she answered back, trying to keep her tone down. "I always remember your words. I keep it in my heart since the moment you said it to me, and it works like a charm. I owe you a lot for that one."

"Even if it means letting me to love you and hoping that you would be mine, would you still think of it as dangerous and not acceptable through other people's eyes?"

The words finally spurted out. Mikasa's eyes were almost bulging out, astonished.

"I..."

"Ackerman—no, Mikasa—I solemnly admit that I love you."

He immediately reached for her chin and pulled her face closer as he captured her lips with his own. Mikasa was stunned with her former teacher's actions. Her head was telling her to push him away, but she pulled Levi's face even closer and deepened the kiss. His hands ran down through her black locks, while her fingers could feel his pale and soft cheeks. Levi pressed his face to her cheek, then went down and breathe on her neck. She grabbed his face to feel the warmth on his lips once more.

They separated from the kiss seconds later. She finally managed to say a few words.

"A-are you serious... Mr. Rivaille?"

"I am _very_ serious," he said, followed with a nod. "And starting today, you may call me Levi. You're no longer my student and I'm no longer your teacher, so it's okay for us to drop all the formalities."

"Okay... Levi."

At first, it felt weird for her when she mentioned the name. But somehow, it seemed so right. At last, she finally found someone to fill the emptiness she had been having for so long. And this time, she couldn't hold her tears—the tears of joy. Levi slowly wiped her tears away with his fingers, and then held her in his arms tightly.

"Promise me one thing, Mikasa," he whispered in her ears, as he could smell the fine fragrant of her hair, "don't you ever dare to leave me without telling me anything. I was so worried about you since you left for college, and I swear I will never forgive you if you ever do that again. You can tell me everything—I wil be available for you anytime."

"I promise."

They embraced together in another affectionate kiss.

After years longing for warmth, Levi finally got her. His guilt upon the lover at her grave slowly disappeared. In the end didn't feel like cheating at all, since he knew that up there she would be happy to see him happy. He shouldn't have tortured himself by keeping him from deserving love. He could imagine her frustration if she knew that he locked away his heart. It was time that he needed somebody to take care of him, to be at his side.

As soon as they ended it, Mikasa told him, "I have a request for you to ask."

Levi smiled. "Tell me."

"My deepest desire of my life is... to have a duet with you," she uttered gently. "Would you mind if you want to do it with me?"

The shorter man didn't say anything. He grabbed her hand and took her to the stage. He sat on the piano stool, with Mikasa beside him, and opened the piano. He cracked his knuckles, as he looked at her beautiful face, saying, "Whatever you want."

They ended their reunion with an 'Endless Love' duet—and a farewell kiss before Mikasa caught her flight back to where she studied.

**fin.**

* * *

**A/N**: I really need to stop watching Glee.

I ended up having this... thing, based on the Schueberry pair. It was pretty obvious. And I think I failed the angst and the romance horrendously, and Mikasa was almost sounded as Rachel herself.

Feedbacks are appreciated.


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